Land record of rights : an overview
Wednesday, 15 October 2008
Shah Md. Abu Raihan Alberuni
In 1793, the terms of the Decennial settlement of 1789-1790 were made permanent by Lord Cornwallis. It resulted in the permanent settlement of estates in Bengal. In the case of permanently settled areas, the unit was the estate as it existed in 1793, and for temporarily settled areas, the unit was the cultivator's holding at the time of re-settlement.
Whether the area dealt with was permanently settled or not it was found convenient, in all but very exceptional circumstances, to adopt the village, village recognised locally as the real unit of survey and settlement. In fact, the needed reasons for the making of the village as local unit or lower administration unit included general administration called for a small unit. If an estate was made up of many villages, the village was the unit usually adopted in the management of that estate. For the Survey and settlement maps, needed for administration purposes, it was recommended that the ruling unit most commonly adopted should be pictured on these maps. The village has always been recognised as land survey and management unit. To collect statistical data, a smaller unit of survey was best or convenient.
For preparation of Record of Rights, (ROR), some surveys were made previously, namely : Thakbast Survey: 1845-1877. It was the first demarcation survey in Bengal and the object of this survey was to demarcate finally on the grand of the boundaries of all the villages and estates in the area for survey.
The objects of Revenue Survey: 1846-1877 were to (a) make accurate maps of the village boundaries and sometimes of the estate boundaries, survey the topographical details that occurred within and around the villages. The results of revenue survey were normally used for the preparation of 1-mile pargona maps.
Khasra Operations : 1841-1854, done by the settlement officer at other times, was carried out by the revenue surveyor. It was often a separate phase of work carried out, with a definite object. It was generally found advisable to carry on this work just before revenue surveys.
Under the provision contained in act IX of 1847, Diara Survey : 1862-1883, on the scale of 4 inches to one mile were carried on in the beds of the Ganges and other long rivers of the Bengal, as far as Bengal is concerned. The whole of the Gangs river and certain rivers in North-West Bihar were surveyed professionally between 1862-65
Cadastral Survey : 1885-1940 were made during the British rule in Bengal under the provisions contained in Act 5 to 1875 (Bengal Survey Act) and Bengal Tenancy Act 1885. As stated before, the modern cadastral survey is an improvement on the khasra survey which generally preceded revenue survey. The cadastral system is divided into the following main heads: Traverse Survey, Cadastral work and Settlement work.
After enactment of the Bengal Serve Act and the Bengal Tenancy Act operations were done duly between 1885 and 1940 in the whole of Bengal. Chapter X of the Bengal Tenancy Act dealt with the preparation of record of the rights. It extends the system of preparing the record of rights to all kinds of estates, permanently settled or otherwise. Operations taken up under the provisions of chapter X of the Bengal Tenancy Act were of two kinds, viz; a) district settlement and b) revisional settlement.
District settlement was the first operation of its kind in the district under provisions of the above act. For such settlement operations, all stages of work starting from traverse survey up to the final publication of records had to be completed. Revisional settlement operations was done on the basis of the maps and records of the district settlements.
In the matter of revisional operations, functions usually starts from the next stage or advanced stage of khanapuri-cum-busharat on the blue prints of the district settlement. But in some cases, where topography or picture or conditions of the lands have undergone massive or extensive changes, operations were done from traverse survey as in the case of district or zonal settlement.
After abolition of zamindary system the new SAT ACT, 1950, was enacted. Survey and settlement operations are now conducted under this act and the rules made under it.
When a district is taken up for district or zonal settlement operations, it is generally sub-divided into blocks of about 800 sq. miles each. The various stages of preparation may be stated in a nutshell as follows:-
To notify under the provisions of the section 144 of SAT Act 1950 (Act 28 of 1951) and the sections 3,5,7 of the Bengal Survey Act (Act 5 of 1875) in the official gazette for information of all concerned.
In cadastral survey, at final make a prevex survey by the Bangladesh Traverse party. The party is attached to the office of the Director General of Land Records Survey (DGLRS), Tejgaon, Dhaka.
During survey of a particular area, the traverse surveyor prepares his field book where he notes all his angular and linear measurements and sends the field book to the DGLRS for computation and supply of pilot sheets or skeleton maps to the settlement officer. When the field survey is found correct, the traverse stations are marked on a squared paper, which is called P-70 sheet, and the plotted (marked) sheets are delivered to the demanding settlement or zonal settlement officer.
But in case of revisional settlement operations, the blue-print sheets of the previous settlement operations on requisition by the settlement officer, are supplied by the drawing section of the DGLRS Tejgaon, Dhaka.
Kistwar (ptps): This is the starting stage of cadastral survey of preparing the detailed 16inch = 1 mile map. Kistwar means plot to plot survey, which is conducted by sarder amins with the help of the two others survey staff called badar amin and chainman. At this stage, the whole work is supervised by the sub assistant settlement officer (Kanango) called Halka Officer and subsequently an A.S.O, that is cadastral circle officer and charge officer. The sardar amins are prepared with necessary equipment before starting the kistwar operation.
The cadastral amin prepare the 16inch village polygon, prepared by the traverse party, into quadrilaterals known as morabbas. After this, step, by step the kistwar work is done and a blank map is produced.
The next stage is khanapuri : which means filling up of columns. It is the first stage of preparation of the draft record of rights. During this stage a khatian is opened for each group of owners of land as well as a khatian for each tenancy. After khanapuri, the map which is first made in pencil is inked in blue cobalt.
After finishing khanapuri the next stage of preparation of ROR is Bujharat. It is a Persian word which means giving understanding or explanation to the concerned owner of land or tenants regarding the particulars recorded in the field of each plot and holding of ownership. The settlement kanungo or sardar amin, doing Bujharat, moves from field to field checking the map and record and correcting errors, where necessary, in presence of the zonal land owners and tenants or their representatives. Disputes arising in khanapuri as also running Bujharat are re-disposed of at this stage.
Attention Stage : It is a very important stage of preparation ROR. This is done by revenue officer under the rule of 28 of EW=ast Bengal Tenancy (EBT) Rule, 1955. Earlier settlement kanungos are empowered with revenue power by the government under the provisions of section 2 (24) of the SAT Act, 1950 (28/1951). All the entries in the draft khatians are read out or explained to the respective persons, corrected, where necessary, by the initial and seal of the revenue officer, called attestation officer. At this stage, after scrutiny and settlement of disputes the draft khatian become legal documents.
Draft publication: Under rule 29 of the EBT Rules, 1955 the draft publication (DP) function are conducted. On completion of attestation of records of a particular and each of the mauzas, a 'junck' or scrutiny is done. The records of rights are then attested and placed for draft publication for a fixed period of not less than 30 days. At that time all concerned have the right to examine the records for correction.
Objection Stage : During the draft publication period, any aggrieved person, with access to the record of rights, can protest the decision of the attestation officer, for ommissions, in the prescribed form. After duly serving the notices to the parties concerned, these objections (which are filed under the provision of rule 30 of the EBT Rule 1955) are disposed of by the A.S.O, who duly empowered for this. Modification, if any ordered by the Assistant Settlement Officer or objection officer are incorporated in the ROR concerned.
Appeal Stage : This is the last stage of correction of ROR. According to the provisions in Rule 31 of the EBT Rules, parties who are dissatisfied by orders in objection cases may file appeals to the settlement officer. These appeals are heard and disposed of serving due notice to the parties concerned by the settlement officer or senior assistant settlement officer, known as charge officer or headquarters assistant settlement officer, duly authorised for this. Before enactment of the SAT Act, 1950, there was no provision for filing appeals against orders passed. For the settlement of the landowner and conducting survey it is in corporation in the sat Act, 1950.
After completion of series work the record of rights is finally framed. The final record shall be printed or prepared as a manuscript according to the direction given by the government by special or general order.
The final records are prepared keeping conformity to the draft or pervious modified records and shall consist of a series of khatians, prepared on the forms used for the khatians of the field survey as well as draft publication. When a record of rights (ROR) is finally published, the revenue officer shall, within 60 days from the date of final publication, make a certificate narrating the fact of such final publication with the date and his name and official designation.
On completion of all survey functions, including the disposal of all appeals, the mouza maps or sheets are sent to the zonal settlement officer's drawing section for last scrutiny and final inking with permanent black ink called change ink. The mouza maps are then reduced in size to 4-inch 1 mile and 2inch 1 mile scales using photograph machine and congregated into Thana jurisdiction maps.
In Bangladesh the DGLRS is the sole authorised department to prepare the maps. There are several kinds of maps, all of which are prepared by out sourcing information of Vandyke map, made by the settlement officer as stated above.
For Vandyke maps, for other purposes, first three sets of mouza maps are sent by settlement officer to the directorate of drawing of DGLRS. The mouza map is further verified by the drawing office before reproduction. The village maps 16inch 1 mile, printed following Vandyke method, are sent to the districts for sale by photo process. The congregated 2inch = 1 mile maps are further reduced to 1inch 1 mile police station maps and 1inch 4-mile district map by photographic reduction procedure. These maps (except 4inch 1 mile maps) are also sent to the district record room for sale to the concerned people and for administrative use.
ROR (record of rights) or khatians are printed at the settlement press located in the directorate at Tejgaon, Dhaka. A compositor type set each khatian, a proof is prepared by roller, checked and 10 copies of each khatian are hand pressed khatians for each mauza (village) are collected and hand-bound. After duly processing and binding, mouzawari copies of ROR, are delivered to deputy commissioner's office and other land officers under him. Some copies are sold to the tenants as per requirements at a price, now fixed at Tk.12 for each khatian. The price of mauza map is Tk. 100 each. The whole traditional printing process obviously takes a lot of time.
Computer based Printing of Record of Rights :
Settlement khatians are printed by computers since 1988. A total of seven million draft copies, await final printing at the Tejgaon press. Rotary press or hand bound press is not suitable for printing ROR. On the other hand huge backlogs of khatian await printing at the settlement press. The government has taken an initiative to printout the khatians using new machine computer aided printing tools. Obviously a great deal of credit goes to modern technology. A British land expert, named W.S. Hartly, ARICS M. Sc. was appointed to assist the computer based printing of ROR.
(The writer is a deputy secretary Ministry of Land)
In 1793, the terms of the Decennial settlement of 1789-1790 were made permanent by Lord Cornwallis. It resulted in the permanent settlement of estates in Bengal. In the case of permanently settled areas, the unit was the estate as it existed in 1793, and for temporarily settled areas, the unit was the cultivator's holding at the time of re-settlement.
Whether the area dealt with was permanently settled or not it was found convenient, in all but very exceptional circumstances, to adopt the village, village recognised locally as the real unit of survey and settlement. In fact, the needed reasons for the making of the village as local unit or lower administration unit included general administration called for a small unit. If an estate was made up of many villages, the village was the unit usually adopted in the management of that estate. For the Survey and settlement maps, needed for administration purposes, it was recommended that the ruling unit most commonly adopted should be pictured on these maps. The village has always been recognised as land survey and management unit. To collect statistical data, a smaller unit of survey was best or convenient.
For preparation of Record of Rights, (ROR), some surveys were made previously, namely : Thakbast Survey: 1845-1877. It was the first demarcation survey in Bengal and the object of this survey was to demarcate finally on the grand of the boundaries of all the villages and estates in the area for survey.
The objects of Revenue Survey: 1846-1877 were to (a) make accurate maps of the village boundaries and sometimes of the estate boundaries, survey the topographical details that occurred within and around the villages. The results of revenue survey were normally used for the preparation of 1-mile pargona maps.
Khasra Operations : 1841-1854, done by the settlement officer at other times, was carried out by the revenue surveyor. It was often a separate phase of work carried out, with a definite object. It was generally found advisable to carry on this work just before revenue surveys.
Under the provision contained in act IX of 1847, Diara Survey : 1862-1883, on the scale of 4 inches to one mile were carried on in the beds of the Ganges and other long rivers of the Bengal, as far as Bengal is concerned. The whole of the Gangs river and certain rivers in North-West Bihar were surveyed professionally between 1862-65
Cadastral Survey : 1885-1940 were made during the British rule in Bengal under the provisions contained in Act 5 to 1875 (Bengal Survey Act) and Bengal Tenancy Act 1885. As stated before, the modern cadastral survey is an improvement on the khasra survey which generally preceded revenue survey. The cadastral system is divided into the following main heads: Traverse Survey, Cadastral work and Settlement work.
After enactment of the Bengal Serve Act and the Bengal Tenancy Act operations were done duly between 1885 and 1940 in the whole of Bengal. Chapter X of the Bengal Tenancy Act dealt with the preparation of record of the rights. It extends the system of preparing the record of rights to all kinds of estates, permanently settled or otherwise. Operations taken up under the provisions of chapter X of the Bengal Tenancy Act were of two kinds, viz; a) district settlement and b) revisional settlement.
District settlement was the first operation of its kind in the district under provisions of the above act. For such settlement operations, all stages of work starting from traverse survey up to the final publication of records had to be completed. Revisional settlement operations was done on the basis of the maps and records of the district settlements.
In the matter of revisional operations, functions usually starts from the next stage or advanced stage of khanapuri-cum-busharat on the blue prints of the district settlement. But in some cases, where topography or picture or conditions of the lands have undergone massive or extensive changes, operations were done from traverse survey as in the case of district or zonal settlement.
After abolition of zamindary system the new SAT ACT, 1950, was enacted. Survey and settlement operations are now conducted under this act and the rules made under it.
When a district is taken up for district or zonal settlement operations, it is generally sub-divided into blocks of about 800 sq. miles each. The various stages of preparation may be stated in a nutshell as follows:-
To notify under the provisions of the section 144 of SAT Act 1950 (Act 28 of 1951) and the sections 3,5,7 of the Bengal Survey Act (Act 5 of 1875) in the official gazette for information of all concerned.
In cadastral survey, at final make a prevex survey by the Bangladesh Traverse party. The party is attached to the office of the Director General of Land Records Survey (DGLRS), Tejgaon, Dhaka.
During survey of a particular area, the traverse surveyor prepares his field book where he notes all his angular and linear measurements and sends the field book to the DGLRS for computation and supply of pilot sheets or skeleton maps to the settlement officer. When the field survey is found correct, the traverse stations are marked on a squared paper, which is called P-70 sheet, and the plotted (marked) sheets are delivered to the demanding settlement or zonal settlement officer.
But in case of revisional settlement operations, the blue-print sheets of the previous settlement operations on requisition by the settlement officer, are supplied by the drawing section of the DGLRS Tejgaon, Dhaka.
Kistwar (ptps): This is the starting stage of cadastral survey of preparing the detailed 16inch = 1 mile map. Kistwar means plot to plot survey, which is conducted by sarder amins with the help of the two others survey staff called badar amin and chainman. At this stage, the whole work is supervised by the sub assistant settlement officer (Kanango) called Halka Officer and subsequently an A.S.O, that is cadastral circle officer and charge officer. The sardar amins are prepared with necessary equipment before starting the kistwar operation.
The cadastral amin prepare the 16inch village polygon, prepared by the traverse party, into quadrilaterals known as morabbas. After this, step, by step the kistwar work is done and a blank map is produced.
The next stage is khanapuri : which means filling up of columns. It is the first stage of preparation of the draft record of rights. During this stage a khatian is opened for each group of owners of land as well as a khatian for each tenancy. After khanapuri, the map which is first made in pencil is inked in blue cobalt.
After finishing khanapuri the next stage of preparation of ROR is Bujharat. It is a Persian word which means giving understanding or explanation to the concerned owner of land or tenants regarding the particulars recorded in the field of each plot and holding of ownership. The settlement kanungo or sardar amin, doing Bujharat, moves from field to field checking the map and record and correcting errors, where necessary, in presence of the zonal land owners and tenants or their representatives. Disputes arising in khanapuri as also running Bujharat are re-disposed of at this stage.
Attention Stage : It is a very important stage of preparation ROR. This is done by revenue officer under the rule of 28 of EW=ast Bengal Tenancy (EBT) Rule, 1955. Earlier settlement kanungos are empowered with revenue power by the government under the provisions of section 2 (24) of the SAT Act, 1950 (28/1951). All the entries in the draft khatians are read out or explained to the respective persons, corrected, where necessary, by the initial and seal of the revenue officer, called attestation officer. At this stage, after scrutiny and settlement of disputes the draft khatian become legal documents.
Draft publication: Under rule 29 of the EBT Rules, 1955 the draft publication (DP) function are conducted. On completion of attestation of records of a particular and each of the mauzas, a 'junck' or scrutiny is done. The records of rights are then attested and placed for draft publication for a fixed period of not less than 30 days. At that time all concerned have the right to examine the records for correction.
Objection Stage : During the draft publication period, any aggrieved person, with access to the record of rights, can protest the decision of the attestation officer, for ommissions, in the prescribed form. After duly serving the notices to the parties concerned, these objections (which are filed under the provision of rule 30 of the EBT Rule 1955) are disposed of by the A.S.O, who duly empowered for this. Modification, if any ordered by the Assistant Settlement Officer or objection officer are incorporated in the ROR concerned.
Appeal Stage : This is the last stage of correction of ROR. According to the provisions in Rule 31 of the EBT Rules, parties who are dissatisfied by orders in objection cases may file appeals to the settlement officer. These appeals are heard and disposed of serving due notice to the parties concerned by the settlement officer or senior assistant settlement officer, known as charge officer or headquarters assistant settlement officer, duly authorised for this. Before enactment of the SAT Act, 1950, there was no provision for filing appeals against orders passed. For the settlement of the landowner and conducting survey it is in corporation in the sat Act, 1950.
After completion of series work the record of rights is finally framed. The final record shall be printed or prepared as a manuscript according to the direction given by the government by special or general order.
The final records are prepared keeping conformity to the draft or pervious modified records and shall consist of a series of khatians, prepared on the forms used for the khatians of the field survey as well as draft publication. When a record of rights (ROR) is finally published, the revenue officer shall, within 60 days from the date of final publication, make a certificate narrating the fact of such final publication with the date and his name and official designation.
On completion of all survey functions, including the disposal of all appeals, the mouza maps or sheets are sent to the zonal settlement officer's drawing section for last scrutiny and final inking with permanent black ink called change ink. The mouza maps are then reduced in size to 4-inch 1 mile and 2inch 1 mile scales using photograph machine and congregated into Thana jurisdiction maps.
In Bangladesh the DGLRS is the sole authorised department to prepare the maps. There are several kinds of maps, all of which are prepared by out sourcing information of Vandyke map, made by the settlement officer as stated above.
For Vandyke maps, for other purposes, first three sets of mouza maps are sent by settlement officer to the directorate of drawing of DGLRS. The mouza map is further verified by the drawing office before reproduction. The village maps 16inch 1 mile, printed following Vandyke method, are sent to the districts for sale by photo process. The congregated 2inch = 1 mile maps are further reduced to 1inch 1 mile police station maps and 1inch 4-mile district map by photographic reduction procedure. These maps (except 4inch 1 mile maps) are also sent to the district record room for sale to the concerned people and for administrative use.
ROR (record of rights) or khatians are printed at the settlement press located in the directorate at Tejgaon, Dhaka. A compositor type set each khatian, a proof is prepared by roller, checked and 10 copies of each khatian are hand pressed khatians for each mauza (village) are collected and hand-bound. After duly processing and binding, mouzawari copies of ROR, are delivered to deputy commissioner's office and other land officers under him. Some copies are sold to the tenants as per requirements at a price, now fixed at Tk.12 for each khatian. The price of mauza map is Tk. 100 each. The whole traditional printing process obviously takes a lot of time.
Computer based Printing of Record of Rights :
Settlement khatians are printed by computers since 1988. A total of seven million draft copies, await final printing at the Tejgaon press. Rotary press or hand bound press is not suitable for printing ROR. On the other hand huge backlogs of khatian await printing at the settlement press. The government has taken an initiative to printout the khatians using new machine computer aided printing tools. Obviously a great deal of credit goes to modern technology. A British land expert, named W.S. Hartly, ARICS M. Sc. was appointed to assist the computer based printing of ROR.
(The writer is a deputy secretary Ministry of Land)